


Come Here Often?

by dpk



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Flower Shop, Fluff, Getting Together, Lance works in a flower shop, M/M, Meet-Cute, allura and pidge mentions; matt has a couple lines on the phone, and shiro just moved into the area, and they both think the other's really cute, but its cute, he's a botany major! or biology or something! because im projecting!, idk how to tag this honestly, me projecting my love for plants onto lance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-02
Updated: 2019-03-02
Packaged: 2019-11-08 06:40:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17976284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dpk/pseuds/dpk
Summary: My gift for @thelanguidcat/Ev for the Shance Valentines Day exchange 2019!Lance had to remind himself of Pidge’s rather solid advice to not use any lines on the people coming into a flower shop on Valentine’s Day.A rather sheepish smile settled on the other man’s mouth— not that Lance had been looking close enough to read the emotions on his lips or anything— and the light flashed off what looked like metal as he raised a hand to the back of his neck in a gesture that made his body language read way too endearing for Lance to have any hope of getting through this alive.





	Come Here Often?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thelanguidcat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thelanguidcat/gifts).



> I hope you like this! I sure had a lot of fun writing it, even though I got a little stuck in the middle... anyway, enjoy!

The musical chime of the bell above the door rang through the shop just as Lance began to wrap a ribbon around the stems of a bouquet of roses.

“I’ll be with you in a moment!” he called, loud enough for his voice to carry from the back room through the rest of the shop. He knotted the ribbon into a symmetrical bow with practiced ease, then set the bouquet to the side of the table. He brushed a couple of loose petals onto the floor to be swept up later before hurrying to help whoever had wandered in.

When Lance emerged into the main room, his customer service smile was replaced by something a little more genuine and appreciative as he appraised the handsome specimen of a man, who was currently looking at a pot of fuschias at eye level as if they weren’t hung from the ceiling at a height that Lance needed a stepstool to water.

“Sorry about that, it’s a bit of a busy day for a flower shop or I would’ve been out here when you came in. I assume you’re here for flowers, but is there anything specific I can help you with?

The handsome man turned, and he was definitely as attractive straight-on as he was in profile. While he would certainly be plenty good-looking by conventional standards, a forelock of white hair and a conspicuous scar across his nose marred what would otherwise be a model-esque visage. Lance was inclined to think that the features did less to detract from his appearance than they did to add in interest.

Lance had to remind himself of Pidge’s rather solid advice to not use any lines on the people coming into a flower shop on Valentine’s Day.

A rather sheepish smile settled on the other man’s mouth— not that Lance had been looking close enough to read the emotions on his lips or anything— and the light flashed off what looked like metal as he raised a hand to the back of his neck in a gesture that made his body language read way too endearing for Lance to have any hope of getting through this alive.

“I could use some help,” he admitted, “I kind of have no idea what to look for.”

“I’m sure we can find you something,” Lance said, making his way around the counter to be within more comfortable conversation distance. “I’m Lance, by the way.”

“You can call me Shiro,” the man said with an extended hand— not the prosthetic one, Lance noted— and Lance shook it. Shiro’s handshake was firm, but not overpoweringly so.

“Well, Shiro,” Lance said as he drew his arm back, “Did you have anything in mind? A bouquet or a flower to stick in a vase, maybe something in a pot that’ll last you longer?”

“I was thinking some for a vase would be nice?” Shiro asked, tone unsure. “I like some of these,” he gestured towards the buckets of cut flowers, “But I don’t know which ones would look good together.”

“Well, which do you like?”

“Um,” Shiro hesitated, then indicated two of the buckets, “These are nice.”

Lance nodded and stepped forward, pulling out a few stems of the yellow flowers and holding them aside as he reached for the smaller, white ones Shiro had pointed out. “These are called calla lilies,” he said, wiggling the yellow flowers in his left hand, “and these are jasmine.” Lance wore a satisfied smile as he held the flowers in his right hand up next to the larger yellow lilies. “Good eye. Any more caught your attention?”

“What about these purple ones?” Lance moved the jasmine to his left hand and fished out a handful of the narrow stems, adding them to the other flowers for consideration.

“Statice,” Lance said as he studied to bunch of flowers in his hands. “Very pretty, and they do look quite nice with the others. You sure you don’t know anything about flowers, Shiro?”

“Very sure,” he replied.

“Some baby’s breath to fill it out…” Lance muttered under his breath, grabbing a few clusters of the tiny white flowers, “An artist, then, maybe? Someone with an eye for shape and color?”

“Not at all,” Shiro chuckled, “Always been more of a STEM person, really.”

“Alright then, lack of prior knowledge aside, what do you think?” Lance held up the bundle of flowers in his left hand for inspection, propping his right hand on a cocked hip.

Shiro took a step in closer, and the shop definitely heated a solid ten degrees. “Pretty,” he said, head tilted and eyes cast down to look at the flowers, and Lance couldn’t help but notice the way the thin wings of Shiro’s eyeliner mirrored the tiny shadows cast by his eyelashes over his cheeks. “I like the little white ones you added,” Shiro said.

“Those are baby’s breath,” Lance supplied absentmindedly, before snapping out of his distraction and promptly shorting out as Shiro leaned in, bringing his face precariously close to Lance’s own in order to smell the bouquet.

“Smells nice,” Shiro observed, his eyes closed as Lance heard him breathe in softly through his nose as his own breath froze in his chest.

“Thats- uh. Good. The jasmine. It smells good because of the jasmine!” Lance spun around, a flush overtaking his face as he fled back to the relative safety of behind the counter, setting the bouquet on top before ducking down below it to search for the ribbon and his composure.

After he’d managed to gather some of both, he stood up full height again. Lance wasn’t surprised to find that Shiro had followed him over, but with the arrival of a modest barrier between them came his ability of speech.

He tried to keep his tone casual as he asked, “So, these for anyone special?”

Shiro snorted. “For my cat to knock over,” he said with a wry smile. Lance’s heart decided it was time to start practicing a gymnastics routine, though whether from the knowledge that Shiro had a cat or that he might possibly be single or the obnoxiously cute snort was impossible to tell. Lance beat the sudden rush of feelings back with a stick.

“She’s been sprinting around my condo nonstop since we moved in.”

Lance laughed at the image, pulling wrapping paper off of the roll tucked beneath the edge of the counter. “Just moved?”

“Yep. I’m just down the street, actually. Saw the shop and figured some flowers might be nice since I don’t have anything up on the walls yet.” Shiro watched Lance shift and organize the flowers with interest.

“Why’d you move, if you don’t mind me asking?” Lance picked up the piece of ribbon when he’d gotten the flowers in a more eye-pleasing arrangement.

“Work,” Shiro replied, “I’m with Garrison Tech— they just opened a new extension here.”

Lance hummed acknowledgement as he tied off the bow, then snapped his fingers in realization. “Wait, isn’t that new branch called, like, the Kerberos branch or something?”

Shiro’s eyes widened. “Yeah, actually, but how’d you know?”

Lance grinned as he tallied up the price for the bouquet on a notepad. “One of my housemates, Pidge Holt, mentioned her brother was getting transferred back into town with that branch. She’s stoked to be living in the same place as him again.”

Shiro smiled at that. “I’ve met Pidge before, actually. Me and her brother go way back. Small world, I guess.”

“Mutual friends, who’da guessed. So, for your lovely taste in flowers, it’ll be 30 bucks even. Cash or card?” Lance twirled the pen around his fingers as Shiro pulled out his wallet.

“Cash works.”

“Cool.” Lance pressed a couple buttons on the register. Shiro paid in exact change.

“Hey, you got a card?” Lance tapped his pen on the rim of the glass bowl that sat next to the register. “We pull one out every two weeks. You win a potted plant or a gift voucher.”

“How could I turn down an offer like that?” Shiro said good-naturedly, fishing a white rectangle out of his open wallet and dropping it into the pile of its brethren in the bowl.

“If you’re feeling lucky, expect a phone call next Friday. I think I’m working, so you’ll know who’s calling. Now, I believe you came in for some flowers, sir?”  Lance held the bouquet out to Shiro. He was half disappointed when their fingers didn’t brush in the transfer, but the look on Shiro’s face when he took the flowers and the overly-careful way he held them made up for it.

“They’re lovely. Thank you, Lance.” Shiro turned the soft gaze up and onto him, and Lance was sure he could feel himself melting a little inside.

“Nh. No problem! Thank _you_. I’m glad you like them. Come back any time.” Lance had to hold his mental facepalm back before it translated into actual movement.

Shiro waved a little as he left, then his eyes were on his bouquet again, and the bell rang softly as the door shut behind him.

“Any one of those would have been fine, dumbass,” Lance muttered to himself, before returning to the back room to finish wrapping another ten bouquets of roses.

 

❊       ❊        ❊

 

Lance tried to convince himself that it wasn’t at all creepy to get a guy’s phone number off the business card that he’d put in a bowl for a raffle for a plant. It wasn’t like it was Lance’s fault that he couldn’t stop thinking about the man that had shown up on Valentine’s Day the week before.

If it was anyone’s fault, it was Shiro’s, for being so annoyingly handsome that he kept popping up in Lance’s head at inopportune moments, like when he had been unable to stop remembering the careful way Shiro had held the bouquet, as he repotted the sensitive plant Allura had chosen for that month’s prize, or how Lance had been caught up in picturing how pretty Shiro’s eyelashes had looked, when the alarm Lance’d set to remind himself to pull a card out of the bowl went off. So sue him- and he honestly wouldn’t put that past Allura- for taking this as the next logical opportunity to see Shiro again. Maybe he’d actually work up the courage to ask him on a date this time.

Lance kept one eye on the door as he sifted through the cards that he’d dumped out on the counter. He definitely had less to worry about with being weird for rigging the raffle to get Shiro back in the shop than he had with what would happen if Allura found out he was tampering with the process.

“Aha!” Lance exclaimed, holding the seventh card he’d picked up aloft with both hands.

_Takashi Shirogane,_ the first line stated, _Garrison Technology._ Below that was a phone number and an address for what Lance assumed was an office building, given that it was in the business district across town.

Lance propped the card against the register and slid the pile of the others off of the counter and back into the bowl waiting in his other hand. He grabbed the card after the bowl was back in its place at the end of the counter, next to the prize plant.

Lance hesitated after he picked up the phone receiver, his hand hovering over the number keys. The little white card, now laid flat and unassuming on the countertop, was suddenly far more intimidating. Lance debated just pulling another random card out of the bowl.

Then he shook his head and set his expression, determined. He was not going to wuss out. He was going to call Shiro, tell him that he’d won the raffle, and when Shiro came in to the store Lance was going to give him his plant and ask him on a date. No problemo.

Lance took a deep breath, then dialed the phone number. He stared at the white card while the phone rang.

“Garrison Tech Kerberos, how can I help you?” The voice speaking was vaguely familiar, but Lance couldn’t identify it beyond Not Shiro.

“Hi, this is Lance from Altea Flowery. I’m calling for a Takashi Shirogane?”

“Wait, did you say your name was Lance?”

“Yep, that’s me.”

“So you’re Lance from the flower shop,” the voice said, before going distant, away from the receiver, but still audible. “Hey, Shiro! Phone for you! It’s the flower shop guy!” The voice trilled teasingly.

_I’m the flower shop guy,_ Lance thought dazedly, before the voice was speaking directly to him again.

“Nice to meet you, Lance– well, not really meet you, per se, but, y’know.”

“You too,” Lance replied politely.

“God, last Friday Shiro would not stop talking about– ” The voice was cut off by a squawk and a clattering noise and Lance was left desperately curious about what Shiro had been talking about last Friday, as another voice— _Shiro’s_ — gradually became audible.

“–enough of that, Matt. Lance, you there?” Lance’s heart did an unusual cartwheel at the sound of his name in Shiro’s voice.

“Yeah, hi,” he replied, “I’m not interrupting you am I?”

“No, not at all. I was just getting ready to head out. I was actually going to stop by the shop on my way home today.”

“I was just about to suggest that you do,” Lance twirled the phone cord around his fingers.

“Oh?” Shiro replied. “Is that why you called?”

“Sorta. D’you remember the raffle thing? You get one guess who won.”

“And this is the number off the card. What do I win?”

“You are now the proud father of a mimosa pudica,” Lance said, smiling even though there was no one there to see it.

“I don’t know what that is,” Shiro admitted, and Lance could hear the smile in his voice too.

“It’s adorable, is what it is. I’ll let you go so you can come and see for yourself.”

“I’ll be there soon. See you, Lance.”

“Later, alligator,” Lance responded before the line went dead, because evidently his brain reverted to that of a twelve year old every time Shiro said his name.

 

❊       ❊        ❊

 

Lance was switching between the apps on his phone more than he stayed on any one of them.

He was starting to feel some telltale flutters of nervousness in his chest and stomach as the minute hand slowly progressed across the face of the clock in the back room. The faint sound of running water and leaves rustling in the drafts was pleasant as ever, but Lance wanted nothing more at that moment than to hear the cheery jingle of the bell above the door announcing a new someone in the shop. Even if it wasn’t Shiro, at least he’d have something to do.

At long last, the bell split through the quiet ambiance, and Lance hopped off the stool and shoved his phone into his back pocket, running across the room in three quick strides, grabbing the edge of the doorframe to halt his momentum as he swung through it.

“Shiro!” he said cheerfully, hanging at an angle in the doorway.

Shiro turned toward his voice, smile growing when he spotted Lance.

“Hey, Lance.”

Lance made it to the counter before Shiro reached the other side, and he leaned forward on the countertop, braced on his forearms.

“Come here often?”

“Every day except Tuesdays,” Lance replied, “But I get paid to be here. What’s your excuse?”

“I was told that I have an ‘adorable’ plant to pick up, though I must admit, I don’t know what it is.”

“Right! That would be this lovely sensitive plant on the end here.” Lance stood up straight and reached towards the end of the counter, sliding the pot from there to the center of the counter, between him and Shiro. “You seen one before?”

“I don’t think so,” Shiro said, looking at the plant curiously. “You called it something different on the phone?”  
“Oh yeah, that was the scientific name, mimosa pudica. The common name is sensitive plant, or sometimes touch me not. They’re called that cause they do this–”

Lance ran a finger along the leaves, smiling down at the plant as it folded its leaves closed along the path of his hand. He glanced back up to find Shiro looking back at him, instead of down at the plant, and his eyes widened slightly.

“Oh. Do I have something on my face?”

Shiro flushed a delicate shade of pink, blinking twice quickly and taking a small step back.

“No! I was just– well, um, yes, actually.” He chuckled quietly, pointing at his own cheekbone, indicating where the mark was on Lance’s face.

“Okay, um, I’ll be right back,” Lance said, leaving Shiro with his plant at the counter as he ducked into the back.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket and turned on the camera with one hand and the tap of the sink with the other. Lance ignored the red rising in his cheeks in favor of glaring at the streak of dirt on his cheek. Sighing, he dampened a paper towel and rubbed his face clean, the cool water doing little to appease the furious blush but managing to erase the smudge efficiently.

Lance tossed the paper in the bin and put his phone away again, running a hand through his hair in an attempt to make it somewhat more presentable than the mess it undoubtedly was.

He re-emerged into the main space to find Shiro leaning against the counter with his hands in his pockets, looking serene and beautiful surrounded by greenery and illuminated by the golden hour light coming through the windows.

Lance was suddenly very aware of the difference in their appearances; the sharp contrast between Shiro’s pristine white shirt and Lance’s fading flannel and the dirt under his nails.

“Well, that was embarrassing,” he said as he drew close to Shiro again, this time opting to stand on the other side of the counter, alongside Shiro.

“I don’t think so,” Shiro said, “It was actually kind of cute.” He glanced at Lance with a soft smile before looking down at the plant again.

“Oh,” Lance squeaked, all thoughts of appearances banished beyond a steady stream of _He said it was cute he said it was cute he said it was cute_ – “So. Um.” Lance flailed for words, equal parts flustered enough to want to think about literally anything other than what Shiro had just said and flustered enough to never want to think about anything else ever again.

“Mimosa pudica,” he settled on, because it was the first topic to come to mind that might do something to quell his blush rather than exacerbate it; “It’ll grow best with some direct sunlight, so you’ll wanna put it by a window. If you’ve got a balcony, that could work too, but it prefers room temperature. It’s already in a decently sized pot, and the right soil, so you probably won’t have to repot it.”

Shiro nodded along as Lance spoke, and some of his nerves dissipated there, leaning against the counter, dispensing instructions on one of his favorite topics– plants.

“It takes an average amount of water; don’t let the soil dry out but don’t waterlog it either.”

Shiro made an affirmative noise and poked one of the buds on the plants, jostling the stem and making a couple of the leaves fold closed.

“What color will the flowers be?”

“Probably purple, but they could turn out yellow, too. I love the flowers on these, they’re like these little… puffballs. A textbook would probably call them ‘globular,’ or something, but…”

“Puffballs is more fun,” Shiro finished, and the smile he sent Lance was downright heartmelting.

“Yeah,” Lance agreed, and returned the smile. “I think that’s it, so. She’s all yours.” Lance nodded towards the plant, and Shiro took the cue to pick it up.

“Thank you, Lance,” he said, still smiling at him as he started to walk away, and Lance’s heart sank slightly. It wasn’t like it was the end of the world, he could always ask the next time Shiro came back, but–

“Hey, Lance–” Shiro turned back, at the same time as Lance began;

“Wait–”

They both stopped abruptly.

“Sorry,” Shiro said sheepishly.

“No, it’s fine, uh. You can go first.”

Shiro rubbed the back of his neck, glancing away briefly before meeting Lance’s eyes again.

“Well, um. Sorry if I’m really off base here, but I was wondering if you were busy after work? If you’d like to get dinner, or something?”

Lance beamed. “I was just about to ask you the same thing.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> and there it is! they have a lovely time and a beautiful romance plays out alongside windowsills filled with plants.  
> we're going to ignore the fact that jasmine would be difficult to put in a bouquet because I thought it would look pretty.  
> I honestly got so soft writing this and thinking about lance loving plants, its such a content, nice concept  
> I hope you liked it Ev!


End file.
